High-Quality Preschool is Key to Closing the Achievement Gap New report highlights strategies to improve young children

As our nation’s children head back to school this month,
the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) urges
policymakers to ensure that preschool really does prepare young
children to succeed in the early school years. NCCP’s new
report,
Effective Preschool Curricula and
Teaching Strategies , identifies ways to strengthen preschool in order to close
the persistent achievement gap separating low-income children from
their more affluent peers.

“We applaud that states are wisely investing more in pre-k
and as a result, preschool enrollment is increasing,” said
NCCP Director and report coauthor Dr. Jane Knitzer. “But
something important is missing in public conversations about
preschool—what research shows about the importance of
high-quality learning environments.”

Making sure that preschool teachers have the tools that they
need to be effective is important for all children. For the nearly
40 percent of American children who grow up in low-income families,
it is especially crucial.

For many of these children, what has been called the
“achievement gap” is real and significant. A review of
national data shows that at age 4, children who live below the
poverty line ($20,000 for a family of four) are 18 months below the
developmental norm for their age group, and by age 10, that gap is
still evident. Neither time nor the first years of elementary
school close it.

The good news is that a body of research is emerging that has
direct implications for ensuring that low-income children
do succeed in preschool and beyond. NCCP’s new
report calls on policymakers and educators to:

Provide teachers with the hands-on professional development and
supports that can help them more effectively promote early literacy
and early math in the context of nurturing and supportive
classrooms.

Use an
intentional curriculum that is research-based, emphasizes
teachers actively engaged with children, includes attention to
social skills, and is responsive to cultural diversity and children
just learning English.

Develop new ways to measure how effective the teacher is in
teaching content and in interacting in a warm supportive way with
the children.

Invest in deliberate, sustained strategies to help teachers
implement an intentional curriculum, and actively promote the kinds
of skills young children need to succeed when they enter
kindergarten and first grade.

Start long before school entry and sustain the reform efforts
through the early elementary years.

In Montgomery County, Maryland, which implemented many of these
strategies, second graders, who made up the most ethnically diverse
group in the district’s history, set new records in scoring
above the national norms on standardized tests of reading and
language.

“Back to school will not mean more than the usual and
customary, unless we set high expectations for the children and
invest seriously in professional development for teachers,”
said Dr. Knitzer.

To speak with someone at NCCP, contact Sarah Fass at (646)
284-9692 or
fass@nccp.org or Meredith Willa
at (646) 284-9647 or
willa@nccp.org.

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the
nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting
the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s
low-income families and children. Part of Columbia
University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses
research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring
positive outcomes for the next generation.